This is the second-to-last book in the Percy Jackson Heroes of Olympus series and sees Percy and Annabeth falling into the bottomless pit of Tarturus, Frank Zhang taking on a herd of poisonous cows and Hazel Levesque meeting a daughter of Circe, the evil and ancient goddess of magic; all to get to the House of Hades and close the Doors of Death! The seven demi-gods in the Prophecy of Seven set off to close the Doors of Death in the Argo II, a flying Greek battleship made by Leo, Son of Hephaestus. As a reminder, the seven demi-gods are: Jason Grace, son of Zeus, Piper Mclean, daughter of Aphrodite and all the other I mentioned such as Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, Frank Zhang, son of Ares, Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, Hazel Levesque daughter of Hades, Nico Di' Angelo, son of Hades, (he isn't a member of the seven but don't underestimate him, he can make spirits of the dead rise again, just the sort of thing to deal with your average school bully) and of course, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon.
The Roman side of the Gods is fighting with the Greek side all because Leo was possessed by an evil spirit that made him fire the Argo II ballistae catapults (cool Greek weapon!) on New Rome, the Roman version of Camp Half-blood. New Rome was a major discovery in the first of the series, The Lost Hero (spoiler alert!!) In the grand scheme of things, this meant war and New Rome's stupid Augur, Octavian, son of Apollo who likes sacrificing stuffed teddy bears to the gods, is leading the revolt with the whole of New Rome supporting him.
The seven find out that the Athena Parthenos, a huge gold and ivory statue that was built in the Acropolis can restore peace between the Roman and Greek demi-gods if a Roman brings it onto sacred Greek ground, e.g. Camp Half-blood. Will the team be able to tell Reyna, The Praetor of New Rome (the only Roman that listens) the news in time?
I personally think this is the best Percy Jackson book yet but I think that the final book is going to be pretty good too!! It had a really good build-up and climax which is the proof of a good book.
Well done Rick Riordan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
